Abdurressak Ipek has lived a long life. A tall, weather-beaten shepherd with a hook nose and tobacco-stained beard, he doesn't even know his exact age - somewhere around 70 or 75 - and unlike most modern Kurds, he doesn't speak Turkish or the main Kurdish dialect. Yet he remembers the day that the army entered his village, Tirali in the Lice region, on 18 May 1994.

Ipek's failing, reedy voice falters as he describes how the army accused the villagers of supporting the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), then torched the buildings, killed the livestock and arrested six of the young men - among them, his two only sons.
In what other European country do hundreds of people literally 'disappear' every year? Where else in Europe do unidentified bodies mysteriously turn up in shallow graves, in rivers, shoved under bridges, as they do in Turkey. For this is the standard method used by the State to dispose of undesirables, killed by the government-backed 'contra' death squads and other organs of the State security police.

Whilst in Istanbul, I watched the now-famous demonstration by 'The Mothers of the Disappeared'. Every Saturday at noon, hundreds of relatives of The Disappeared file silently into Galatasaray, in central Istanbul. There they sit silently, mournfully, holding pictures aloft of their missing loved ones. Most of the 'disappeared' are Kurdish villagers detained during security force operations in the southeast. The issue has become acutely embarrassing as Turkey tries to enter the European Union.

Between 1996 and April 1997 there have been over 194 'disappearances' (IHD statistics).

Everywhere I travelled in Turkey and Kurdistan, I met relatives of 'The Disappeared', one of the most shocking inditements of the Turkish regime to date. Brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, fathers, husbands, wives - the list is endless. So many, in fact, that there is a danger of becoming blasé about it. After all, this is the country where anyone who is arrested expects a beating as standard treatment before their questioning even starts.

Dozens of cases are up before the European Court of Human Rights. Yet despite the repeated promises from Turkey's leading politicians to clear up this ugly blot on the country's human rights record, it shows no sign of abating.

Security force presence at the weekly demonstration is large and visible.

Recent Turkish history has witnessed three military coups and, since 1980, conflict between armed opposition (most notably the PKK) and the security forces. Turkish governments have been unwilling or unable to control the security forces making them unquestionably the most powerful group in the country. Even though 'disappearances' and political killings are unlawful in Turkish society the security forces still treat human rights with contempt.

Security force presence at the weekly demonstration is large and visible.

Recent Turkish history has witnessed three military coups and, since 1980, conflict between armed opposition (most notably the PKK) and the security forces. Turkish governments have been unwilling or unable to control the security forces making them unquestionably the most powerful group in the country. Even though 'disappearances' and political killings are unlawful in Turkish society the security forces still treat human rights with contempt.

At the "Mothers of the Disappeared" on March 29th 1997 the authorities, obviously embarassed at the hundreds protesting the disappearance of their loved ones, tried for the first time a new approach. A van and police unit stood by drowning out the demonstration with loud speakers saying that they were the missing persons unit and people should talk to them. We tried - they ignored us...

Even though the government has pledged to uphold the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances by investigating all 'disappearances' there is little evidence that this has happened.

At the IHD (Human Rights Association) in Diyarbakir people, like the daughters of Fikri Özgen, bring the cases of their missing family members to the attention of human rights workers. Fikri, an old man of 73, is severely asthmatic and frail, and is now the subject of an Amnesty International 'Urgent Action'. The daughters plead with me for my help. He disappeared in front of his house at 10am on 27 February this year. He was seen being taken by police into a police car with blackened windows (usually a 'special team' or secret police car) - that is how blatant such 'abductions' can be. He had never committed a crime in all his life. One of his sons has also disappeared. I later learn some of the family has been involved with the PKK. The price of this involvement is summary justice for everyone else, it seems.

The daughter has now applied to all the relevant authorities to find out what has happened, even the special court in Diyarbakir which deals with these cases, and also sent a telegram to MED-TV (Kurdish satellite television based in London). She is extremely worried about her dad - he has high blood pressure, is severely asthmatic and on many different types of medication. Almost pathetically, she hands me the list of medicines. It is a very emotional moment.

The local head of IHD in Diyarbakir, Mamut Sakar, a lawyer and also vice-president of the national organisation, recounts how he has been arrested and beaten several times. When he demanded to get a doctor's report proving his mistreatment, the doctor was threatened and the report torn up in front of him. Then he was rearrested. When he went back to the doctor a second time, the same thing happened. That is why, he jokes, "so many of us become lawyers - at least we have some protection due to our knowledge of the law. But it's not very much."

Mahmut confided that he fully expects to be 'disappeared' in the future.

Even local politicians from the ruling parties in the south-east (these are right wing people who carry handguns for protection) admit there are "secret factions" within the country." In Turkey, politics is dirty. They [the people in control] don't want to see real politicians and politics governing Turkey...some people are using the threat of partition [of Turkey] as a false veil in order to carry out these atrocities", said one. A prominent member of the centre-right ANAP party from the dilapidated Diyarbakir branch added: "Capitalism, money and murderers don't recognise borders and one day other European countries will be affected by all this, even if they close their eyes now. Every single person is affected by this struggle." To these politicians, the Kurdish question is as large a problem for Turkey as economic or governmental reform.

Necati Billican, Supreme Governor of the State of Emergency Region, Diyarbakir, denied that 'disappearances' were due to the security forces and claimed such actions were carried out by unnamed "terrorists" from "outside" the country. Unnamed "insiders" were helping them, he claimed. "We are doing everything we can to solve this problem," he said. He sits calmly in his large, beige-carpeted, plush, mahogany-lined offices and denies any culpability at all on behalf of the Turkish State. If he, the person in command, denies all knowledge and responsibility for such events (and he commands several hundred thousand armed men), what "unnamed" sources are committing such atrocities?

Abdurressak Ipek recounts the useless merry-go-round with the authorities, as he tried in vain to discover where his two sons were held. Three men were eventually released, but his sons were not among them. The authorities have denied any knowledge of their whereabouts. Even the guards at the barracks where they were taken express ignorance. To this very day, Ipek is still searching, with no answer. The clink of his prayer beads punctuates the hopelessness laced throughout his words.